Qantas cuts: Your questions answered

The decision by Qantas to cut 6000 jobs will affect millions of Australian travellers. Here’s what today’s announcement means for you.

• PM: Qantas’ 6000 job cuts are ‘heartbreaking’
• Unions condemn 'premature' Qantas job cuts

Qantas has announced it will cut at least 6000 jobs, across all sectors of the company, and continue to stand down 15,000 workers, as it becomes a “smaller airline” in the short term to deal with the fallout from the COVID-19 crisis.

This is what it means.

WHICH WORKERS WILL LOSE THEIR JOBS?

The 6000 job cuts – possibly more – will be across Qantas and Jetstar and represent about 20 per cent of the total workforce. Qantas CFO Vanessa Hudson said the cuts would impact on cabin crew, ground services, engineering and corporate, and that the international workforce staff will be more significantly impacted than domestic service staff.

Airline CEO Alan Joyce said the company will be offering voluntary redundancies first up, before moving to involuntary redundancies. There would be “a lot of interest” in voluntary redundancies, he said.

The airline advised that 1450 jobs would be lost in its corporate division, 1500 in ground operations, at least 1050 among cabin crew, and at least 630 jobs in engineering. At least 220 pilots would be made redundant but the airline said this would mostly be managed by early retirement of its fleet of 747s.

Alan Joyce will be staying on as Qantas CEO. Picture: AAP Image/Bianca De Marchi

WHAT’S HAPPENING WITH STOOD-DOWN WORKERS?

The 15,000 Qantas staff who had been stood down at the start of the pandemic shutdown in March will remain in stand-down mode.

Mr Joyce predicted half of the stood-down workers would be “flying domestically by the end of the year””.

He also revealed he had been in discussion with Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Treasurer Josh Frydenberg last night about extending JobKeeper provisions for the stood-down workers.

Mr Morrison said “JobKeeper or other measures” could be used to help the aviation sector and that the government was looking at ways to make this happen.

Qantas had received $400 million in JobKeeper support from the federal government so far, Mr Joyce said.

WHAT IS HAPPENING WITH INTERNATIONAL FLIGHTS?

Mr Joyce announced that international services would not return – with the possible exception of a “trans-Tasman bubble” with New Zaland, until July 2021.

Around 100 aircraft will be parked for 12 months, while the airline’s biggest planes, the A380s, will be parked for three years in the Mojave Desert.

When international services do return to international destinations such as London, New York, Los Angeles and the Asian hubs, the airline will rely on the smaller-capacity 787 aeroplanes.

“It will be three years for global travel to return to 2019 levels,” Mr Joyce said. “We will be a smaller airline in the short term.”

Further afield, Mr Joyce said the airline’s Project Sunrise – the development of aircraft that could transport passengers vast distances, such as Sydney to London or Melbourne to Paris – would continue.

Qantas cabin crew Bridget Zizza and Alyssa Carson at the official opening of Qantas Group Pilot Academy at Wellcamp Airport in January. It is not known which Qantas staff will lose their jobs as a result of today’s announcement.

WILL I GET A FLIGHT CREDIT?

Qantas advised customers that any existing, unused flight credits issued after 31 January 2019 originally booked for travel until 31 October 2020 are now valid for bookings and travel until 31 December 2022.

The airline said in some cases this new date would take a few weeks to update in the system.

HOW ARE UNIONS RESPONDING?

The Transport Workers’ Union and the Australian Services Union called for Qantas management to reverse the cuts and for the Federal Government to respond with a significant job saving package for the industry.

“This announcement by Qantas is premature and we’re calling on Alan Joyce to engage with the Federal Government on an Aviation Keeper package to protect jobs,” Assistant National Secretary Linda White said.

“It is time the Federal Government put aside its aversion to targeted industry assistance and took some responsibility for shielding the aviation industry from mass job cuts,” she said.

“If Qantas does not reverse its decision, we will fight for these jobs to be retained.”

TWU National Secretary Michael Kaine said the Qantas CEO was “very good at walking the halls of Canberra when it suits his agenda yet he is quick to cut jobs and hang workers out to dry. We are demanding that he halt these redundancies until the Federal Government makes an announcement on Jobkeeper”.

“We have been calling on the Government for months to step in with a national plan for aviation and they have refused. It is because of Government restrictions that aviation was grounded to a halt, yet the assistance and assurances have been paltry. Qantas is now making hasty decisions to slash jobs which will affect thousands of families while Virgin is still limping along.

Originally published as Qantas cuts: Your questions answered